"Extreme Photonics & Applications" arises from the 2008 NATO Advanced Study Institute in Laser Control & Monitoring in New Materials, Biomedicine, Environment, Security and Defense. Leading experts in the manipulation of light offered by recent advances in laser physics and nanoscience were invited to give lectures in their fields of expertise and participate in discussions on current research, applications and new directions. The sum of their contributions to this book is a primer for the state of scientific knowledge and the issues within the subject of photonics taken to the extreme frontiers: molding light at the ultra-finest scales, which represents the beginning of the end to limitations in optical science for the benefit of 21st Century technological societies.

Laser light is an exquisite tool for physical and chemical research. Physicists have recently developed pulsed lasers with such short durations that one laser shot takes the time of one molecular vibration or one electron rotation in an atom, which makes it possible to observe their internal electronic structure, thereby enabling the study of physical processes and new chemical reactions.

In parallel, advances in micro- and nano-structured photonic materials allow the precise manipulation of light on its natural scale of a wavelength. Photonic crystals, plasmons and related metamaterials - composed of subwavelength nanostructures - permit the manipulation of their dispersive properties and have allowed the experimental confirmation of bizarre new effects such as slow light and negative refraction.

These advances open a vista on a new era in which it is possible to build lasers and engineer materials to control and use photons as precisely as it is already possible to do with electrons.

http: //www.photonics.uottawa.ca/nato-asi-2008/

"Extreme Photonics & Applications" arises from the 2008 NATO Advanced Study Institute in Laser Control & Monitoring in New Materials, Biomedicine, Environment, Security and Defense. Leading experts in the manipulation of light offered by recent advances in laser physics and nanoscience were invited to give lectures in their fields of expertise and participate in discussions on current research, applications and new directions. The sum of their contributions to this book is a primer for the state of scientific knowledge and the issues within the subject of photonics taken to the extreme frontiers: molding light at the ultra-finest scales, which represents the beginning of the end to limitations in optical science for the benefit of 21st Century technological societies.

Laser light is an exquisite tool for physical and chemical research. Physicists have recently developed pulsed lasers with such short durations that one laser shot takes the time of one molecular vibration or one electron rotation in an atom, which makes it possible to observe their internal electronic structure, thereby enabling the study of physical processes and new chemical reactions.

In parallel, advances in micro- and nano-structured photonic materials allow the precise manipulation of light on its natural scale of a wavelength. Photonic crystals, plasmons and related metamaterials - composed of subwavelength nanostructures - permit the manipulation of their dispersive properties and have allowed the experimental confirmation of bizarre new effects such as slow light and negative refraction.

These advances open a vista on a new era in which it is possible to build lasers and engineer materials to control and use photons as precisely as it is already possible to do with electrons.

http: //www.photonics.uottawa.ca/nato-asi-2008/

Nanophotonics is where photonics merges with nanoscience and nanotechnology, and where spatial confinement considerably modifies light propagation and light-matter interaction. Describing the basic phenomena, principles, experimental advances and potential impact of nanophotonics, this graduate-level textbook is ideal for students in physics, optical and electronic engineering and materials science. The textbook highlights practical issues, material properties and device feasibility, and includes the basic optical properties of metals, semiconductors and dielectrics. Mathematics is kept to a minimum and theoretical issues are reduced to a conceptual level. Each chapter ends in problems so readers can monitor their understanding of the material presented. The introductory quantum theory of solids and size effects in semiconductors are considered to give a parallel discussion of wave optics and wave mechanics of nanostructures. The physical and historical interplay of wave optics and quantum mechanics is traced. Nanoplasmonics, an essential part of modern photonics, is also included.